Sunday, 1:01pm
Tampa, FL
“Won’t you get hip to this timely tip, and take that California trip…” (“Route 66”, Bobby Troup)
Howdy…
I asked our old pal Kevin Rogers to guest post here, while I’m off galavanting around the west coast on biz trips. (First stop: San Francisco, for the quarterly meeting of our super-awesome Platinum Mastermind group.)
I laughed reading this post. There are excellent lessons for everyone below (especially if you’re struggling to find your footing in this current economic turmoil)…
… and I just want to be clear, up front, about one crucial detail: There is a HUGE difference between making yourself useful (after doing the necessary preparations)…
… and just being a lazy-ass stalker looking for a handout. I met my own primary mentor, Gary Halbert, by slowly proving myself through actions. I never asked for anything, and never pretended to be anything I wasn’t.
Most of the time, the difference between a life frozen in place… and a life that roars along in the fast lane… turns on a single moment where you realize “Hey, I can DO this”.
And that moment usually comes from discovering information, or advice, that you couldn’t quite piece together on your own.
This is where teachers come in.
This is where taking that critical action-step of reaching out and grasping opportunity is the order of the day.
Okay, enough preamble. Here’s Kevin:
Hi. Kevin Rogers here.
Since the head honcho is away this week and asked me to fill in (always a humbling honor), I thought I’d share the story of how I was able to “weasel my way” into John’s world…
… all the way from being a guy he’d barely noticed writing about him on marketing forums… to eventually becoming a trusted insider (and even working alongside him as his go-to-writer).
There’s a huge lesson in here anyone can use to skip several rungs up the ladder of marketing hierarchy and claim your seat at the royal feast of the clued-in and well-connected.
This lesson is based on an old philosophy that says: In order to achieve your goals, choose someone who has already achieved those goals and model their thinking.
This story backs up that theory, with two small addendums:
1. Modeling your subject’s thinking isn’t as simple as reading a biography or daydreaming about how they might react in a certain situation… but rather, getting into a room with them to find out what truly makes them tick. And…
2. When it comes to scoring a meeting with your subject… it’s probably going to require you to swallow your fears to make it happen.
Here’s the story: Read more…
Thursday, 4:51pm
Reno, NV
“I’ll have what she’s having…” (When Harry Met Sally)
Howdy…
I figured I’d end the year in a ball of fire, and just lay it out for you here.
If you tried, really really hard, and weren’t successful last year…
… it was probably mostly your own damn fault.
Yeah, sure, the economy sucked, politicians were mean, your prospects are all screamin’ idiots, and God had it out for you. All totally excellent excuses for having a crummy bottom line again.
It’s not your fault. It can’t be your fault. That… that’s just…
… that’s just completely unacceptable that it might be your fault.
And, hey, maybe you did piss off the universe, and spooky forces beyond your control mucked things up so you had a bad year.
I believe you. I really do.
However…
After you’ve been around the block a few times in life, you start to notice some very interesting things about success.
And the big realization, I’d have to say, is that the idea that success is somehow magically bestowed on people in a spontaneous burst of luck and being in the right place/right time…
… is just bullshit.Read more…
Friday, 3:33 pm
Reno, NV
“When the world is a monster, ’bout to swallow you whole…” (R.E.M., Can’t Get There From Here)
Howdy…
Quick post today (I promise).
It’s about a HUGE freakin’ disaster lurking behind many entrepreneurs right now…
… like a snarly ugly googly-eyed monster sneaking up on your ass with fangs bared and claws clutching.
Some of you, right now, can feel its hot fetid breath on your neck.
Boo!
You know what this beast is?
It’s the Great Unknown Future that most marketers are facing right now, as 2011 comes galloping around the corner. And there are no fangs sharper, and no evil hunger more devouring than a recession-addled economy (licking its chops as it creeps up on you).
Now, here’s a free piece of advice from a grizzled veteran of 30 years in the biz world: I’ve successfully navigated at least 3 huge (and at least 3 other less-huge but still extremely painful) recessions since I began my career as a marketing expert.
I’ve done it alone…
… and I’ve done with the help, mentoring, and insight of folks who had been down that road before.
And I gotta tell you: It SUCKS to do it alone.
And having a little solid, experienced help watching your back can almost immediately transform your progress.
In my consulting practice, I see a lot of lonely cowboys wandering the marketing range, trying to figure everything out on the fly. They have no one to shuck and jive with… no one to bounce ideas off of (so they never get honest feedback)…Read more…
Tuesday, 3:59pm
Reno, NV
“Of course, some people go both ways…” (Scarecrow to Dorothy, “Wizard of Oz“)
Howdy…
Here’s a quick bit of wisdom ripped from the ongoing coaching in the current Simple Writing System program.
It’s actually a tactic I’ve been sharing with consulting clients and mastermind colleagues for decades. I haul it out whenever someone expresses frustration on what next decision to make.
Key point: It doesn’t matter what the situation is. This works for business, love, revenge plans, shopping, starting wars, arguing with idiots, wondering what to do on a nice afternoon…
… any situation at all where you need to make a decision.
It also works even if you’re looking at lots of “gray” area… so you’re not facing an either-or, or a fork in the road, or a choice between two clear options.
In fact, it probably works best when you have no idea whatsoever of the POSSIBLE decisions to make. You’re clueless. Frozen. Absolutely blank on the next step.
(This is, by the way, a common reason serious small biz owners come to me for consultation.) (In the larger corporate world, another long-observed excuse for hiring a consultant is to have someone to blame for making a decision you either can’t or won’t make. CYA. Not the best reason to bring in an expert…)
So here’s the tool… Read more…
Saturday, 2:35pm
Reno, NV
“Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!” (Gen. Patton, ambushing Nazi’s before they could ambush him)
Howdy…
Early Halloween memory: I’m getting ready to go extort candy from the neighbors with my older sister (cuz while I’m starting to suspect that Santa Claus ain’t real, I’m still pretty convinced that ghosts and witches are out there, thus requiring a bodyguard)…
… and, putting my worldly experience to work, I choose the biggest bag available to carry my haul in.
Dreams of endless sugar-rushes have my 5-year-old brain twitching like a junkie as we join the throngs of vandals and kids outside, and I’m raking it in.
However, just before calling it a night and heading home, I realize that my bag was a little TOO big… and I’d been dragging it along the ground, and all that glorious booty had fallen out in the street somewhere behind me.
The horror.
It was unfair. It violated every code of how kids should be treated by the universe that I knew about. It was a memory-scarring traumatic event.
I felt…
… cheated.
And I’m pretty sure that was my first lesson in empathy. Because it sucked to feel like I’d been cheated out of something.
Sucked, sucked, sucked. I’d headed out that evening snickering to myself about being so clever with the big bag… and… and…
Well, I can’t even talk about it anymore. It’s just too painful a memory.
And from that moment on, I have nodded in solidarity and sympathy whenever someone else was cheated. “Yeah,” I’d say to myself. “Been there.”
In fact, there are three lessons here:Read more…
Wednesday, 11:56am
New York, New York
“Truckin’, like the Doo Dah man…” (Grateful Dead)
Howdy…
Sorry for the little vacation here from the blog. I’ve been hunkered down in “launch mode”, on the road, and ministering to various biz projects…
… all of which have messed with my “sit down and write, dammit” time.
I’m actually handwriting the first part of this post in a hotel room, just before heading to La Guardia to fly home after a week in the Big Apple. (Those of you following me on Facebook may have seen pics of the dispicable weather display we braved to watch the Jets b-slap the Vikings on Monday Night Football. We spent 4 solid days in meetings, while the city basked in perfect Fall splendor… and the one time we ventured outside, thunder and lightning and a deluge of biblical size dumped on our sorry asses.)
(Still, it was worth the drenching. Great story to tell whenever anyone needs one-upping on weather disasters…)
By the time you read this, I’ll be back in exciting Reno, catching my breath.
I am one bone-tired road dog, I’ll tell you what.
And I can’t wait to be sitting back at my cluttered desk, writing. Dammit.
So…
… quick post here, just to get the blood moving again.
I was thinking about this subject while reading up on the gossip whirling around the online entrepreneurial community. It’s starting to jive with the blistering political attacks dominating the mainstream news cycles…
… and it’s scary.
The details of the gossip don’t really matter. Rumors come, rumors go… same as political movements and all other fads and moments of temporary insanity.
But there is an overriding theme here that will never go away: Read more…
Tuesday, 6:26pm
Reno, NV
“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ballpark. Aim for the company of immortals.” (David Ogilvy, “Confessions of an Adman”)
This is important:
A while back, I posted something on this blog that hit a freakin’ nerve among the throngs of entrepreneurs, biz owners and rookies who hang out on this site.
Comments started flooding in…
… and, as usual, I interacted with folks.
I’ve just been told (by trusted inner-circle colleagues) that one of my replies in those comment threads…
… was perhaps the most vivid and impassioned point I’ve ever made about the raw seething power of honest kick-ass salesmanship to change lives.
So, I want to share that reply, here in a fresh post.
Let me set the scene for you: People were trying to make sense of the massive piles of hype still being disgorged by the Internet marketing community…
… and how all that hype soured good people on good opportunities.
“Hype”, and the dreadful sales pitches filled with it, really confuses people. To the point where it’s now cool to talk about “selling without selling”.
It’s clear that many people now struggling to make a business successful…
… feel adrift in all the advice, information, and teasing opportunities swirling around the marketing community, both online and offline.
I know it’s frustrating. I hear about this frustration all the time.
And here’s how I addressed this critical subject in that comment thread:
| “Hi Stephen.You know what? The modern world is designed to bug us.
None of our ancestors had to deal with virtual worlds, global anarchy, an economy based on blips in a database, or any of the other challenges to sanity this brave new adventure called Life In The 21st Century hath wrought.
And within this turmoil and chaos is the “marketplace” we do business in. It’s noisy, distracting, and crammed with scams and opportunity in equal amounts.
The truth about modern marketing ain’t pretty.
Having the best product means squat. Being a genuine nice guy out to do the right thing won’t save you from bankruptcy. The marketing graveyard is full of fabulous products no one figured out how to sell.
Selling is the language of the marketplace.
Sure, there’s so damned MUCH of it going on, it’s annoying, it pisses us off, and our fight-or-flight urges kick in big time.
However… one man’s hype… is another man’s essential information.
You can want the world to come at you in short little bursts of exciting, entertaining bite-sized pieces of lusciousness…
… but if you live your life that way, you’ll be perfect fodder for the worst scams.
You can use the “what the heck, I’ll go with my gut” method of choosing what you buy…
… and maybe you’ll survive just fine. Maybe get stuck with a bad car that doesn’t meet your needs, or was overpriced, or a lemon. You can survive that, probably.
But you’d be a fool to apply that kind of decision-making to, say, getting married.
You want to know as much about the other person as possible.
Courtship is, essentially, a long sales letter. You’re getting pitched, and you’re processing the data on your own at the same time.
The decisions you make for your business are (or should be) as carefully munched on as the other life-long choices you encounter.
Hype is in the eye of the beholder.
If you are offended by classic salesmanship — which presents a choice, and then lobbies for you to make that choice — then you need to find another way to make your business work.
I’ll tell you that every day there are fresh businesses launched by good people who don’t believe they need to know how to sell in order to thrive…
… and those businesses are shuttered and empty soon after.
Business isn’t a popularity contest.
If you have an ethical product that your prospect really should have (because it will make his life better, or fix a dire problem he has)…
… then SHAME on you if you ignore the proven ways to get his attention… and fail to sell him on it just because you’re uncomfortable with the sales process.
You do NOT have to be obnoxious in order to sell.
You don’t have to be anything other than who you are, in fact.
You just need to understand the emotional, psychological and behavioral mechanism your prospect has to endure in order to agree to buy what you have.
Some of the smoothest salesmen alive can close the deal without a bit of perceived hype. They’re still using classic salesmanship tactics, however.
They understand the needs of the prospect, and they understand the sometimes irrational process required in order to close the deal.
Scams will never go away. You must be hyper-aware as a consumer. The dangers of an open marketplace are with us forever.
Nevertheless, the old maxim “the more you tell, the more you sell” will also never go away, either.
If detailed information and legitimate urging to join up strikes you as “hype”, then maybe the opportunity in front of you isn’t something you should engage in.
But I’ll tell you what: If this were the last train about to leave the station, and the conductor didn’t do all he could to make you clearly understand this fact…
… and the train left without you…
… you’d be in a world of hurt. And you’d be right to blame the conductor for not grabbing your attention and forcing you to understand just how critical the situation was.
This upcoming Simple Writing System mentoring program very well might BE the last one we ever host. It starts September 29. There is not another one planned.
I could whisper this fact. Or just ignore it.
Or, I could do everything in my power to make you aware of this… so you aren’t left behind, ticked off that no one made it clear to you.
When you don’t care about that train pulling away, the conductor is just yelling. It’s an annoyance, and you wish he’d shut up.
However, when it’s your train, and you’re about to miss it, then you’re thankful he broke through your daydreaming.
The SWS adventure is about to start.
It will change lives, as the previous ones have. This is the real thing, crammed with real value and real skill sets that can fuel success and independence for the rest of your days.
It’s a crazy time to be alive.
Choose your resources and choose who you trust carefully.
And when you discover genuine opportunities, jump on them. I know the lure of the Magic Button is powerful and hypnotic and hard to resist. Choices are seldom easy when the stakes are high.
Do what you think is right.” |
Okay…
That was my impassioned plea to anyone out there struggling to understand how important this choice before them really is.
If you’re still on the fence about joining this program…
… consider this:
Consideration #1. My biz partner Stan and I have many different (and lucrative) projects we’d love to pursue.
And while it’s pretty evident (from the flood of sign-ups the day we began accepting students) that this upcoming SWS mentoring program will be the best one we’ve ever hosted…
… we have zero current plans to host another one like this. We take these over-sized, large programs one at a time. There are no other programs on our schedule with this assembled faculty, or with all the extra resources and bonuses we’ve stuffed into this all-out program.
Can you even begin to imagine how tough it is to put together a faculty with such well-known, sought-after, notoriously-successful professionals? The preparation, delivery and maintenance of this utterly unique program absolutely consumes my office while it’s active.
It requires dedication, intense focus, and vast quantities of time and energy to create this stunningly-effective learning environment for you.
We’re not an institution — we’re just professionals who’ve banded together to help change some lives.
The business world is getting very exciting, as I said. Lots of opportunities to get busy with, lots of reasons not to commit to an intense, deeply interactive coaching program like this.
The single reason TO commit should be obvious: It is the one skill-set, above all others, with the power to fuel your success in everything you do from here on out.
Consideration #2. So… this really may be your last shot at getting this kind of pro-level SWS mentoring, one-on-one, personalized, intensely focused on you… in the big, rollicking full-faculty program format we’re hosting right now.
Consideration #3. And if this is the last large-sized program…
… we’re going to make it the best one yet…
… and we’re also going to end this short period of accepting students with a BANG.
Here’s what we’re doing: When you join us in this Simple Writing System at-home mentoring program (which begins September 29)…
… we will give you full-privileged access to video of the infamous Action Seminar we held in January…
… absolutely free. This is an exclusive JUST for folks in this upcoming program. Right now, in fact, this is the ONLY way to see this sought-after video.
The marketing community is still buzzing about that Action Seminar (more than a few months afterward).
And it’s easy to see why. The entire focus of that event — as you’ll soon see — was on organizing your business plan…
… and implementing it as quickly and efficiently as possible. Through a realistic, strategy-loaded action plan that fits you like a glove.
Basically… we gave attendees their first honest, no-B.S. glimpse of how top marketers actually get their act together.
And get busy achieving every goal on their list, while racking up the moolah and results.
This was a gold mine of proven, total-insider advice and info and specific tactics.
It was NOT about writing.
It was about having that breakthrough “a-HA!” realization on finally kicking your adventure in capitalism into high gear… the way the niche-dominating Big Dogs do.
There were two solid days of this stuff. No “rush to the back of the room” pitching goofiness, either.
It was all run interactively — everything we discussed, broke down, explained and shared came directly from attendee questions and concerns, based on real-world situations straight from the people in the room.
These were entrepreneurs, small biz owners, and rookies… in other words, people just like you. Finally learning how to break through the chaos, and map out the clearest path to getting what they want.
Everything we taught them…
… is now available for you to feast on, too.
Privately. And for free, when you join us in this SWS mentoring program. (You can, if you prefer, wait for the official release of these videos, and pay the steep going rate out of pocket. When released, the Action Seminar DVDs will be priced breathtakingly steep.)
There is very little time left to decide if you’re coming with us…
… or remaining where you are in your life.
There are, as I write this, spots available with the professional-writer teachers in this Dream Team faculty. Who are itching to get started, going deep with each student one-on-one.
It’s a proven program — the 8th large-scale one we’ve hosted. The only one of its kind out there.
You can see what people who have been through it have to say here:
www.SimpleWritingSystem.com
It is not expensive.
Hiring any one of the top writers in the faculty to write privately for you would cost you thousands of dollars more (up to tens of thousands more).
To get long-term access like this to so many professional writers — including me and the writers closest to me — would be out of the reach of even big-budget corporations.
And yet, in this expanded SWS program, you get focused, personal training and guidance from a professional writer/teacher…
… plus access to a mind-blowing resource center stocked with pure content, delivered by the most respected experts in the world…
… and all the motivation, excitement and fun that fuels these special programs.
We’ve set up a legitimate once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here.
Perfect for entrepreneurs, biz owners and even rookies who realize it’s time to learn the most powerful (yet simple) system anywhere for creating killer sales messages. Whenever you need them. Under the careful guidance of a professional mentor.
As you will see, we’ve bent over backwards to make this amazing program within the reach of almost everyone.
There is a commitment. You will need to follow through.
However, we’ve made it easy.
You’ve likely never been taken by the hand and guided like this before. You’ll soon get used to accepting the personalized, pro-level help, though. It’s fun, once you get moving.
This train is leaving the station soon.
Should you be on it?
Make your decision. See what’s up, and please choose wisely.
Here’s that link again:
www.SimpleWritingSystem.com
If you join us, I’ll see you inside the program. Where your amazing adventure in success and independence begins September 29…
Stay frosty,
John
Sunday, 9:08pm
Reno, NV
“Hit me. Hit me again. Again. Arrrgh…” (Blackjack dude going down…)
Howdy.
One of the truly fun parts of being in business are the Life Lessons you get to learn.
Or, rather, you’re forced to learn (if you don’t want to spend your career blundering down the same blind alleys time after time).
Early on, I took notice of the various quirks people exhibited running a business… especially the entrepreneurs, who were unencumbered with the rule books that franchise owners and traditional corporations worked under.
Now, you’ll see startling examples of strangeness in any group of humans, doing anything, anywhere. So the first lesson is probably to acknowledge that reality…
… and stop pretending we’re a race of logical, rational, functional beings going about the business of running a civilization efficiently and sanely.
We’re not.
And savvy, experienced biz veterans survive by learning to work within the limitations that come with dealing with other humans.
It’s actually one of the more fun parts of entering the biz world, once you get a handle on the basics of how spectacularly humans can screw something up.
Don’t get me wrong — I love people. But I love them in spite of their near-consistent tendencies to botch things completely. (I’m by no means above the fray). (No one is. Scratch the surface of the most “together” person you now, and you’ll find evidence of shocking weirdness.)
The reason little insights like these are so awesome, is that they can help you stay balanced… Read more…
Monday, 11:34pm
Visalia, CA
“I never drink… wine.” (Bela Lugosi, “Dracula”)
Howdy.
Special treat today. I’ve asked an old friend (and killer copywriter) to guest post on the blog here.
Jim Curley and I go way back (to, gasp, Before The Birth Of The Internets As A Marketing Force)…
… and he’s one of those Web-hip veteran copywriters who brings a healthy dose of old-school wisdom and experience to everything he does. He’s well steeped in all the manly markets (golf, self-defense, hot rod body artwork, family life, vampires, stuff like that). I’ve had him as a wingman at multiple seminars, and I’ve hired him as a writer for my own projects.
That’s how good he is.
I didn’t give Jimbo any directions on what he could write about, either. I trust the guy completely…
… and just told him to dig into one of the subjects he and I enjoy talking and bitching about when we get together.
This is a good lesson Jim’s sharing with you.
Enjoy… Read more...
Thursday, 11:49pm
Reno, NV
“Qu’est-ce que c’est?” (Talking Heads,”Psycho Killer”, ca. 1979)
Howdy.
Quick lesson today, which should help you understand one of the fundamental truths of kick-ass marketing.
That truth: There is almost always a way to fix or solve a marketing problem.
Actually, that truth is also functional in every-day life…
… but that’s a much longer lesson.
Here’s the quickie version, for marketers: I was just delivering this story in one of the Simple Writing System classrooms, and thought I’d share with you here, too.
As any decent marketer knows, the Prime Directive of a sales process is to discover your best possible prospect… and “reach” him with your sales message.
Seems simple enough. Sometimes, it is. If you’re selling hamburgers near a starving crowd, you’re set. Just open your doors and tell folks to line up.
For a while (back in the Good Old Days of Internet marketing), all you had to do was:
Step One: Be the first into a hot niche…Read more…
